Battle of the Bands 2012 Contestants - Enter Now!
Entry deadline is September 10, 2012
Nominations available:
Bands
|
Youth/Solo/Duo Acts
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Self-Produced
CDs
| Invite all to the Battle
Battle
of the Bands Competition Details
The DC Blues Society is holding its annual
Battle of the Blues
Bands! The winners will compete at the 2013 International Blues
Challenge in Memphis,
TN.
The deadline for entering is September 10, 2012.
The competition will consist of a CD review competition and an all-live
final competition. The final competition is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 13,
2012.
The winner performs at the College Park Blues Festival (an IBC Fundraiser) and is sponsored* by DCBS at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN in 2013 AND performs at the 25th Annual DC Blues Festival.
The contest is open to blues artists from DC, Maryland and Virginia.
See
Eligibility
Criteria below for additional details.
To
enter: print and fill out the form below (write
clearly). To be eligible, you'll need to send all
of the following:
-
Filled out form with confirmation of DCBS
membership
- At least 3 sample tunes on CD
- Official band name
- Short band bio (100 words or less)
- A digital color or B&W photo with a 300
dpi resolution
- A link to your website
Failure to send
the above may forfeit eligibility. Sample tunes are required in order
to qualify. Materials sent to DCBS will only be returned if a
self-addressed stamped envelope is provided.
E-mail
items 3-6 to jams@dcblues.org
and mail everything by the deadline.
DC Blues
Society - IBC
P.O. Box 77315
Washington, DC 20013-7315
Eligibility
Criteria
The winner is obligated to attend the IBC
competition.
-
An act is limited to two consecutive
appearances at the
International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN and must then sit out at
least one year before being eligible to compete again. An act
under the same name will not be allowed to compete three consecutive
years.
- Any
artist whose name has appeared on a final Handy/Blues Music Award
ballot is ineligible. (All other musicians who have had peripheral
and/or professional
contact through performance with a Handy/Blues Music Award nominee,
including but not limited to touring band members and studio musicians,
are deemed
eligible for the IBC.)
- An individual may not compete in more than one
act in any capacity.
 No other entry restrictions apply. This means
that management
contracts, booking agent contracts, recording contracts, performance
contracts (even those that include regular television or radio
broadcast) and nationally distributed recordings have no bearing on
eligibility.
For complete International Blues Challenge rules,
scoring, and other information, visit http://www.blues.org/ibc/
Scoring
Criteria
The following scoring criteria reflect in large
part the Blues Foundation recommendations as they apply to the International
Blues Challenge. Categories include Talent, Blues
Content, Stage Presence and Originality.
- Blues Content:
Everyone has his or her own interpretation of what is and is not Blues.
Thus, any given three-judge panel will include members with varying
opinions of Blues, covering the
spectrum of Blues whenever possible, from the most traditional to
soul/blues and rock/blues. Bands should pick material carefully. At the
Memphis semi-finals and finals, the judges are Blues professionals, not
a bar crowd, and are likely to be unimpressed with song selections that
are uninspired. (Call this - with all due respect to Sir Mack Rice and
Wilson Pickett - the "no Mustang Sally rule.")
- Vocals:
The acts vocal skills
- Talent:
This category is self-explanatory - the act's vocal and/or instrumental
skills.
- Originality:
Original work is encouraged. Cover tunes are allowed but playing the
recorded rendition lick by lick is discouraged; will not be looked upon
favorably by the judges; and
will be reflected in scoring.
- Stage Presence:
Over the years, the quality of talent has risen so dramatically that
the IBC no longer consider this an "amateur" competition. Most
contestants have performed on stage enough to know that they are not
simply playing music, but putting on a show. This
category rates how "sellable" a band may be.
Band Sets
Each band will have thirty (30) minutes to perform their selections.
There will be a 7-minute changeover period between sets. If a band
exceeds the 30-minute performance time or the 7-minute changeover a
penalty may apply. (See Penalty
section.)
Weighted Scoring
To reflect the relative
importance of each category in the success of a band, a band's score in
each category is weighted. Raw scores for Blues Content are multiplied
by four. Talent is multiplied by three. And Originality and Stage
Presence are multiplied by two. The total in each category represents
the Weighted Score for that category. Total possible weighted score is
110. DCBS will not use the IBC ranking calculations. The
band with the highest sum of Net Weighted Scores is the winner.
Penalty
Points
A Band is penalized one point from its Total Weighted Score (see below)
for each ten seconds that it runs overtime. There is no penalty for
using less than the allotted time. The same penalty also applies to
exceeding the 7-minute changeover period. [If the preceding band takes
more than five minutes to clear the stage, the oncoming band will not
be penalized.]
SCORING SYSTEM FOR JUDGES
Here is the scoring procedure for DCBS Battle of
the Bands:
- All categories and weightings are as
previously stated.
- Each judge will indicate his or her Raw Score
(a whole number
between 1 and 10) in each category and turn that information over to
the scorekeeper. Judges will not weight scores.
- The scorekeeper will multiply the Raw Score in
each category by the
established multiplier to get each judge's Weighted Score in each
category for each act.
- The Weighted Scores from each category for an
act are added
together to determine the acts’ Total Weighted Score for each judge.
- Any penalty points will then be deducted to
obtain the act's Net Weighted Score.
- The band with the highest Net Weighted Score
wins.
- Each band will have thirty (30) minutes to perform their selections
and up to 7 (seven) minutes to set-up. (See Penalty
section.)
- In case of a tie, the band that has the highest weighted score in the
Blues Content category will be declared the winner. If a tie remains,
the scorekeeper shall calculate the sum of all Total Weighted Scores
from all judges for the tied acts. The band with the higher sum of
Total Weighted Scores wins.
- Visit the International Blues Challenge
website for more information on the IBC.
DCBS
International Blues Challenge (IBC) Entry Form
BAND/ARTIST’S
NAME: ________________________________
NUMBER
OF MEMBERS:________________________________
NAME OF
MEMBER/ARTIST WHO IS A DCBS MEMBER*_________________________
CONTACT
NAME: ___________________________
ADDRESS:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
PHONE
NUMBER: _____________________________________
E-MAIL
ADDRESS: ______________________________________
WEBSITE
ADDRESS: ______________________________________
SOCIAL MEDIA (Facebook etc.)
ADDRESS: ______________________________________
On
behalf of the above named band/artists and in consideration for
representing
DCBS at the 2013 IBC,
I,_________________________________
, agree to perform a minimum 120 minutes at the DCBS IBC Fundraiser, promote our participation, and acknowledge the DC Blues Society as our IBC Blues Foundation Affiliate Sponsor during events and in online and print promotions..
__________________________________________
Signature
*
If no
one is a DCBS member, please visit http://www.dcblues.org
to download the
Membership form.
* The DC Blues Society is a Blues Foundation affiliate. The International Blues Challenge (IBC) is restricted to acts sponsored by a Blues Foundation affiliate.
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